264 HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 



We anticipate the time as not far distant, when the giant 

 power of steam will be seen striding such of our fields as are 

 entirely free from stones ; rolling its shark-toothed cylinders 

 through the soil ; grinding to powder all coarse lumps ; comb- 

 ing, currying, tearing to shreds all stalks and roots ; and so 

 pulverizing and mixing the whole, as greatly to increase the 

 fertility. 



But it would be folly to relax our efforts at improvement on 

 existing means, for, in the first place, such a steam process 

 may never come ; in the second place, if it come, it can be 

 applicable to only a small portion of our lands ; and in the 

 third place, it affords no relief for intervening time. We can- 

 not live this year on the expectation of bread to be raised by 

 steam next year. True wisdom, in this case, is, to seek for 

 the most perfect preparation of soils, by means now within our 

 reach. As yet, " much increase is by the strength of the ox," 

 not of steam ; and we do well to inquire whether the strength 

 of this noble animal may not be better employed than at pres- 

 ent, with all our improved ploughs, in preparing the soil for 

 luxuriant crops. May there not be some mode of tearing up, 

 pulverizing and mixing soils to a great depth, which, though 

 perhaps more expensive, would nevertheless pay better than 

 the present cheap mode of merely inverting the top soil ? 



The roots of most cultivated crops will run twenty inches 

 deep, if you give them that depth of loosened soil. They run 

 down, off, or upward, wherever they find the best food, and 

 the best conditions for promoting the growth and perfection of 

 the plant. They are endowed with an instinct about as uner- 

 ring as that of cattle in the selection of their pasturage. We 

 know not, and we probably never shall know, precisely, how 

 plants grow. But we know that the leaves select the right 

 nutriment from the air and reject the wrong, and that the roots 

 are equally discriminating in their choice from the ground. 

 He who has taught the fowls of heaven to observe their ap- 

 pointed times, has taught the roots of plants to seek unerringly, 

 the right food and the best conditions — to run shoal, to secure 

 the kindliest influences of the sun, to run downward for moist- 

 ure, to run for food wherever food is found. Only give them 



